The Weekly CourierEPICENTER XL starts in Moscow, Dota 7.14 Released and the Last Majors of the Season

EPICENTER XL Kicks Off in Moscow

Image by EPICENTER

EPICENTER XL started in Moscow this week with 12 teams battling for DPC points. Team Liquid have the chance to defend their championship title for the third year in a row, finally scoring a Major victory and guaranteeing their TI8 attendance. PSG.LGD and Mineski can solidify their position in DPC rankings with a top4 placement, while Na'Vi will require to get the first place at the tournament to return to top8.

Patch 7.14 released

Last Thursday a massive patch was released to Dota, introducing Techies to the Captain's Mode and substantially changing the balance of the game. So far the changes seem to be on point, with Epicenter meta showing considerable signs of progress in its opening matches in terms of hero diversity.

Not everyone is happy about patches being released this close to the start of the tournament, however, with many professional players and coaches expressing their dissatisfaction with the new system.

The Last Majors of the Season have their Teams

Qualifiers for the last Majors of the season are over. MDL Changsha, ESL One Birmingham and China Supermajor all have their participants ready to battle for the last chance to get into top8.

SA, NA and SEA qualifiers were particularly interesting: Pain Gaming managed to qualify for ESL One Birmingham, while Infamous took the SA qualifier spot in China Supermajor. Optic Gaming will participate in the UK tournament, but lost the chance to attend the Chinese one to VGJ.Storm. Fnatic qualified for ESL One with a 3:2 series against TNC, but lacked consistency in China Supermajor's Round Robin qualifier format.

Failure to qualify for both tournaments means the end of the DPC run for some of these teams, since they no longer have a chance to get into top8.

Noteworthy:

Valve changed the rules regarding patches during the tournaments:

For upcoming Majors where the Thursday patch would land during the tournament, we will instead be releasing the patch at the end of the event.

wow only 1 comment ?
who is this sunbhie ? a south korean player ? i forgot
he sounds too salty imo, you can still prepare for an upcoming tourney tf is he talking about.. just not as long as it used to be

SunBhie is Team Secret coach)
I also think that tight patch schedule is a major plus for tournaments. I miss the good old Wings who could play anything at a very high level. We need teams to strive to be like them

Pepehands, my favorite pinoy team eliminated by the hands of Fnatic. Can't be too upset though, Weeb boy needs some more w's under his belt. Hopefully Pain Gaming will do well. South America always feels like the weakest link, I'd love an underdog to get a rep for themselves.

In other news,

Currently the Enchanted Mango has a 34.18% win rate. This is unacceptable. It is our duty as fellow gamers of the DotA 2 community to put this item in the position of power it deserves. It has been there for us when we needed mana for reincarnation, when we had that clutch nyx stun saving our teammate's life, and when we accidentally used it in fountain before the runes even spawned. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

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